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Pee, Not Chlorine, Causes Red Eyes from Swimming Pools: CDC (2015)

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221–230 of 353 posts

Re: Pee, Not Chlorine, Causes Red Eyes from Swimming Pools: CDC (2015)

#221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always been told not to urinate or defecate within 100 feet of water sources in the backcountry because if everyone does it it builds up and then the water is unsafe to drink even when filtered. The 6 micron filters used to filter giardia from the water will not filter viruses, which are present in your feces. Please stop doing this.

Do you think all the animals that use these water sources follow the same rules?

Deer viruses also don't typically infect humans. But human viruses will readily infect other humans.

Re: Pee, Not Chlorine, Causes Red Eyes from Swimming Pools: CDC (2015)

#222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm constantly shocked and disgusted that people actually pee in pools and that it's not some joke someone made up somewhere.

I mean, what about all the other body fluids/debris that are in pools? Saliva, sweat, earwax, belly button lint, bird shit, insects, band-aids, small animal carcasses that get trapped in the filters but are removed before the pool opens? There's no avoiding other peoples/animals grossness, frankly whether your in a pool or just out and about. Urine may be gross, but it's sterile, and at least for me, there are grosse…

That's why public pools really push showering /before/ you get into the pool.

Re: Pee, Not Chlorine, Causes Red Eyes from Swimming Pools: CDC (2015)

#224

i get red eyes even from my shower, unless there is pee in the water pouring from the shower head, I dont know what to say.

The lack of salt in tap water is likely the cause of eye irritation and redness. The concentration of salt in tap water about 2% of human tears. The concentration in chlorinated pool water is closer to 30% of human tears. Perfectly clean and balanced pool water should be less of an irritant than tap water.

https://www.aao.org/eye-health/ask-ophthalmologist-q/is-it-o...

https://blog.hayward-pool.com/maintenance/how-much-salt-do-y...

Re: Pee, Not Chlorine, Causes Red Eyes from Swimming Pools: CDC (2015)

#225
post #85
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gosh this is not gonna go well with the public. I know several kids who just can't hold pee in the pool. They'll just let it out. Also its not like the toilets are right there. You often have to get out of the pool, walk like 100 yards or down a flight of stairs. It's a PITA. Even Michael Phelps once said in an interview that very rarely competitive swimmers get out of the pool to pee.

Umm... that's why you pee before you get in the pool. 100 yards isn't that much to ask to avoid swimming around in your own, and other's piss. Those kids will be swimming around for hours exerting way more energy than the walk to the bathroom. FFS. This is why I don't swim in pools.

Wait until you find out you splash yourself with urine every time you use the toilet. Or that millions of bacteria are defecating on you as we speak. It's all in your head, these things are not harming you.

Re: Pee, Not Chlorine, Causes Red Eyes from Swimming Pools: CDC (2015)

#226
post #51

I've always wanted a product that you could add to the swimming pool water that reacts to human urine by coloring the water immediately surrounding the pee-er. Say a neon orange or red. Over time, the colored water gets diluted and disappears. Maybe pee-shaming is what's required to stop people from doing it.

Gosh this is not gonna go well with the public. I know several kids who just can't hold pee in the pool. They'll just let it out. Also its not like the toilets are right there. You often have to get out of the pool, walk like 100 yards or down a flight of stairs. It's a PITA. Even Michael Phelps once said in an interview that very rarely competitive swimmers get out of the pool to pee.

Michael Phelps was fucking with whomever was interviewing him. I was a competitive swimmer and it's almost impossible to need to go pee while working out in a pool. Not only are you getting dehydrated by sweating profusely, you are getting dehydrated via osmosis.

Re: Pee, Not Chlorine, Causes Red Eyes from Swimming Pools: CDC (2015)

#227
post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Urine is sterile. That's why it's good to pee on wounds. Edit: Wow, what harsh downmodding :) Yes I was wrong and learned something, isn't it still useful to keep my comment here for other's education? I literally heard this "urine is sterile" comment in the last couple of weeks. I stand corrected, thanks!

Really? Why do I bother lathering my hand for 20 seconds and losing fat and then rubbing alcohol on it after I accidentally splash a bit?

Because you just touched your pelvic region which has tons more bacteria than urine itself does. Urine will have some, especially some from the urethra on the way out, so definitely shouldn't be considered sterile, but wash your hands if you're touching your pelvic region in general please.

Re: Pee, Not Chlorine, Causes Red Eyes from Swimming Pools: CDC (2015)

#228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Gross" doesn't necessarily mean unhealthy. I swim in the San Francisco Bay 3 times a week, 25 minutes at a time, no goggles, just a cap and a bathing suit. I've swum near gross things like dead seagulls & dead seals, and I'm sure a lot of gross stuff drains into the Bay, but as long as the sewage treatment plant doesn't overflow I'm not worried.

Agreed, that's kinda my point. The evolutionary theory behind why we have feelings of grossness is just that "this thing is potentially dangerous to me," so we developed this sense of "gross" so we'd avoid the potentially harmful thing (although a quick google search doesn't bring back the study i'm thinking of that demonstrated this). But obviously that reinforced/learned feeling might not always be accurate. I get…

I'm not sure about other cultures, but in Japan they're pretty explicit about washing before entering an onsen. They even discourage putting your towel in the water, wearing a bathing suit, or submerging your head (as well as going when you have open cuts or sores). But, they also prefer mineral water to chlorine and it's generally fed from a spring or the water is changed every day.

I'm not a fan of overly cleanliness, but not doing these things means you have to add more chlorine. In addition to the aesthetic unpleasantness of chlorine and other chemicals, it's harder on the pool equipment and like another commenter said, it should require better ventilation that most pools currently have.

Re: Pee, Not Chlorine, Causes Red Eyes from Swimming Pools: CDC (2015)

#229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If said kids can't avoid peeing in the pool they shouldn't be in the pool or should be wearing diapers to avoid pissing all over fellow patrons. The restrooms are rarely convenient in big box stores or the mall they are often a fair hike away but you don't see little Johnny hiking up his leg to pee on his fellow shoppers.

No diaper can hold pee in while in a pool. Pool diapers only hold poo, and even then only some of it.

> Pool diapers only hold poo, and even then only some of it.

Quite a lot, actually, but not all.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/15216564/

“Swim diapers of all three brands exhibited an approximately equal fine-solids retention capability of about 98 to 99 percent over 30 minutes of water immersion activity. Conventional disposable diapers invariably fell down or came apart during the experiments, resulting in very limited solids retention. This study indicates that commercially available swim diapers represent a vast improvement in reducing the potential for fecal material release in public pool facilities, but that some release will still generally occur with these products.”

Re: Pee, Not Chlorine, Causes Red Eyes from Swimming Pools: CDC (2015)

#230
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm constantly shocked and disgusted that people actually pee in pools and that it's not some joke someone made up somewhere.

Sometimes kids even poop in the pool. Happened at a pool we went to last week.

This is likely not a widespread policy (or if it is, I doubt it's followed), but I'm pretty sure at a pool I worked at if there was feces they would evacuate the pool for 20m. 20m was chosen because that's how long the pump system would circulate all of the water 1x or 3x.
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